Monday, August 31, 2009

Year 4 - An Update

It's been a long time coming, but I finally did it - I finally finished the top row of pages on Lady & unicorn!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I passed my 3rd anniversary in June, and only had a smidge left to go in July, and still just a smidge to go this month - but I finally got through the smidge, and I now have 95 rows completed, (plus a good bit more here & there), for a minimum of 27, 030 stitches!!

Now, when I was really trying to figure up how much time I really have into it, since it's in rotation, I figure the last 2 1/2 years (I officially began the timed rotation with The Castle on Jan 1, 2007), I have only worked on this about 11 weeks a year, and in those 11 weeks/year, and who's to say how many actual hours in those weeks? I have the hours recorded, but they are rough guesstimates at best (don't take into account time spent staring blankly at chart or TV), and I didn't take the time to add them up. At any rate, let's say that in the time since I started this, I have worked on it for about 34 weeks - about 8 1/2 months equivalent to working on only this. There, now I don't feel so bad for this thing dragging out this long! And consider, the first page took me over a year, because I was hell bent on getting parking to work. When I gave that up somewhere on page 2, I got quite a bit quicker :) And my enjoyment went up immeasurably, too, which is pretty much the goal here, right?

So, here's hoping that in another 3 years, I have considerably more to show for it than just another row of pages; maybe I'll have 2 rows of pages done!!! I do know that once I get to the unicorn, he ought to go pretty quick - he covers the better part of a page, and his main part is only 3-4 colors, once I get past the "outline" of him :) I am NOT confident enough to go order the other one I really want. Yet. Here's a closer-up picture of the area I worked this week:You'd think an orange tree would be pretty straight-forward, wouldn't you? Not so this one....

To reward myself for making this long-sought goal, once I scrolled L&U up some more (finding 4 old needles in the process) and put her away, I decided to do a few more blocks on my canvas piece, Kaleidoscope. I really ought to try to work this in more often so I can finish it up - it's only about 10 hours from done. I need to kit up Starry Nights soon, because that will be my next canvas piece :) Anyway, here's Kaleidoscope as of now - I did the two lower left most blocks, taking me to half done, then did the on on the upper half.

Once I got to that stopping point, I picked up Nancy's RR again; I want to try to get the General Store block as close to done as I can get it before I have to mail it on next Tuesday :) Normally, I would ship it this Friday, but because Monday's a holiday, I want that extra day to get as far as I can, maybe get the beads (some, if not all) on it. Anyway, I am getting to almost having all the crosses done - just lots of white and the tree to go, and one more pillar, then time to bead. But since this is MTM week, we'll see if I can squeeze it in:I will also try to remember to get an overall pic before I mail it on to Anita :) I love this project!

Lastly, my update on my travel/lunch project, Iris. I got the solid iris on the left done finally, and I think the middle one is just about ready for the last backstitching. The third one, on the right, is going to be tricky to get to, as it is 80% backstitching only, and I don't know if I have sufficient counting skills to get to the crosses without doing the bs first - but I hate to do crosses over bs where they come into contact.... I have a tournament this weekend, with some wait time between Saturday's games - if the weather stays cool (80s) like it has been, I may be able to finish it off, if I have any brain power left :) We'll see how far I get on lunch this week - now that the stupid cold is almost gone (just the odd sniffle left), I should be more productive :) Here it is right now:

As I said earlier, this is MTM week, and tournament weekend with a holiday Monday. being a team manager now, I lose some time to getting tourney stuff together and doing the check-in Friday, but hopefully I can still crank through some buildings on Part 6 :) I did some extra cleaning this weekend, so hopefully the place won't get too trashed while we are all out all weekend - DH & Little Kid at one place all weekend, me and the Big Kid at another. I am also still considering entering the same fair as last year; if I do, then I need to get some time to, umm, finish some things, like a certain piece of jewelry that's been laying on the table since ummm, October, and some ornaments, and oh yeah, if I can get some $$$ to get glass for those frames I bought in June, I need to get a couple of things framed :) And pick a few pictures to also get 1) printed out (really, you can print photos out???) and 2) frame also. I want to go to the fair again, just don't know if I can stand the strain of getting it all together in the next 2 weeks.... Anyway, check back next week to see how many buildings MTM has, and if I manage to finish the General Store on Nancy's RR :) Happy Stitching everyone!

About Me

I grew up in southeastern Ohio. I joined the USAF in 1986, and saw a little bit of the world before my active duty ended in 1990. I am currently living north of Atlanta, GA, with my husband, two boys, and various animals. I am a print junkie - I read everything - I write, and am always making things; I cross stitch and do beaded jewelry currently, but have done stained glass, thrown pottery, various kinds of sewing, and other crafts. By day, I work in manufacturing, as an engineering change analyst and DBA; by night, I am Head Cook and Chief Bottle Washer, and artiste extraordinaire...